Thursday, 14 April 2011

A Good Tip

I have enjoyed being busy this week. It has all come back to me so quickly, the driving, the loading and unloading, the customers, the suppliers, interacting with so many different people every day, wonderful.

And it's the meeting and chatting with all those different, mostly nice, sometimesnot, people that I miss most about my last job.

I had to work a long day yesterday, my last delivery, a load of wood, to a cabinet maker in Kenmare in county Kerry. He and his family live up the side of a mountain in a caravan beside his workshop. It wasn't easy to get there, uphill in first gear on a track more suitable to donkey than diesel! (They have two donkeys!)

A wonderful, happy and chatty man, who loves his work and loves his lifestyle. We had a great auld chin-wag about this, that, and the other whilst we were unloading the wood into his workshop. His wife (who seemed to appear from nowhere) overheard me telling him that I was looking forward to getting home and eating the stew that I had prepared the night before and we got chatting about cooking and healthy food and ingredients etc. Before I left them she gathered up a dozen duck eggs and some hen eggs from their free range poultry and gave them to me as a tip! Best tip I've been given in quite a while.

I did enjoy my stew (pork, smokey bacon, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, spuds, tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic, barley, lentils, split peas, stock. All put in a big pot and cooked slowly for many hours, let to cool, to be eaten the next day!) when I got home almost 2 hours later at 9pm. And what a breakfast of duck eggs I did enjoy this morning before hitting the road again!

14 comments:

Duck eggs... do they taste different than chicken eggs? I've never had any but chicken. The stew sounds delish! And yes, always best the second day, isn't it? Glad you are enjoying your "other" work for this little while. They say a change is as good as a rest! xoxoxo

Isn't it nice to talk to people who want to share a part of what they have with you, just because it's the kind thing to do?

We once had chickens, ducks and geese; the only difference I could tell in the eggs (besides the fact the duck eggs had pale blue shells) was that the eggs from the goose were richer. In fact they made the best homemade ice cream!

Ah, is the gift of gab an Irish one? Because if so, it explains why my Mom has never met a soul she didn't feel it necessary to chat with. After all, she only claims her Irish genes. ;)

oh, goodness, sounds like this caravan family might just be my caravan kin!!! what a nice trip that was, for sure! and your stew! yummmmm.....i'm wondering if you added just a bit of wine for good measure, as i sometimes do - not so sure about pink champagne in it, but a nice dark red would do the trick in my book! ;)